Monthly Archives: August 2013

News Update

Info on Bill Hoidas

I wanted to post some info on myself and my company so you can feel comfortable dealing with us.. We have approximately 200 ticketbrokers as clients- far more than any other processor. We also have a 2.80% group rate for you with Amex. We have a lot of brokers that use Ticket Evolution, Ticket Technology, Ticket Network and Tickets Now so can easily send them the hierarchy info if necessary for their POS/gateways. Around 2002 we were introduced to Gold Coast Tickets and learned that the credit card industry was treating ticketbrokers like second class citizens holding reserves, charging higher than normal rates and imposing various strict restrictions. We were the pioneer in getting ticketbrokers the same terms and conditions as any other good merchant. We are also a supporter of the NATB including financial support to their causes and have been to all of their trade shows.

Below please find some info on myself and my company. As I mentioned on the phone because of my long hours and the fact that almost 100% of my accounts come from client referrals I am very proud of the service I give my clients. This is because I am involved in an industry which unfortunately often still resembles used car sales as far as reputation and rightly so. However that eventually works to our favor as we demonstrate to our merchants and prospects that we are a beacon of honesty, great customer service and true fair pricing in an otherwise tarnished industry which I’m sure that you have gotten a taste of firsthand.

The reasons date back to the original days of cc processing when no or very little residuals were paid on a merchant account to the ISO and rep after it was opened. So the only way a rep could make money was to get a new account bonus and sell or even worse do a lease/purchase equipment at vastly inflated prices. Even though the opportunity now exists to make a marvelous six figure annual residual stream most ISO’s, acquirers and banks have not outgrown that mindset as their typical “training” is a day of hard sell, hard close instruction and then they release the new rep with instructions to haunt restaurants and shopping malls. Consequently the average rep quits in six months or less.

Because of my long hours and the fact that almost 100% of my accounts come from client referrals I am very proud of the service I give my clients. This is because I am involved in an industry were unfortunately almost 100% of my competitors quote rates that if true would be under water so consequently they quote you a teaser rate and than proceed to downgrade all of your rewards, business and corporate cards to a higher rate. In addition they charge hidden fees, annual fees, etc. I’m in the industry and sometimes it takes me awhile to properly interpret a statement. Also there are currently about 200 different types of cards which all carry their own rates so we have to make sure that although we give our merchants the best rate possible we also have to make sure we won’t lose money on an account. And of course with us you have 24/7 Level 2 support without having to hit multiple prompts and get put on permahold just to talk to an inexperienced “customer service” rep. The average firm in our industry loses 35% of their merchants per year. Matrix loses less than 1/10 of one percent so there must be a reason for that.

Recently talking with two of our acquirers we asked how many of their ISO’s concentrate on not having their merchants suffer transactions that downgrade to a higher rate. One that has over 1,000 ISO’s said just one-us. The other one has 298 ISO’s and they said two.

Also feel free to go to my links below

Bill Hoidas
Consultant Manager Larger B2B/MOTO/Internet Accounts
Product Development Manager
Matrix Payment Systems
847-381-3482 office
847-381-4289 fax
http://paymentconsulting.net/
Green Sheet Article

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Chargebacks

An Open Letter to Credit Card Holder’s that do Chargebacks through their Issuing Banks/American Express & Discover. Also to the issuing banks that allow it.

Ticketbrokers are often their target.

Filing chargebacks is not a license to steal!

I despise people that knowingly commit “Friendly Fraud” That is they file a chargeback knowing they received tickets or other merchandise as promised and are just trying to weasel out of paying. To those that do are you aware that the victimized merchant can file felony theft charges against you and you could see real jail time?

Many cardholders think if they file a chargeback claim the card issuer reimburses them. Not so-it’s the merchant that sold you the merchandise in good faith. Whether or not a chargeback is filed often depends on the issuing bank. My bank BMO Harris for example is very strict & does not allow frivolous chargebacks. I have filed one chargeback in the 9 years I’ve been with them and I was very justified in doing so, but they made me jump through hoops to prove that I was right and that I had first tried to settle with the merchant. Unfortunately many banks are not like this. They have low level staff answering chargeback requests that have no business expertise or knowledge of the marketplace. You can almost hear Sam or Sally Newperson saying “You want to file a chargeback? Oh goodie that sounds like fun-let’s do one!”

So now we have a bank who’s cardholder went on a legitimate website as an example, picked out exactly what they wanted, clicked on acceptance of all terms & conditions, paid with their credit card and received exactly what they wanted and then want to do a chargeback because of some misunderstanding, petty complaint or worse yet so they can wind up getting the merchant’s product for free. In most cases they have never even attempted to call and discuss their alleged grievance with the merchant.

Cardholders have to realize that just because they paid for example $600 for an item that isn’t the profit for the merchant. To use Ticketbrokers as an example again they may have paid almost or even over $600 for that ticket and are often operating on a razor this profit or at times a loss.

Cardholders please stop stealing from merchants! Courts please order that MC/Visa/Amex/Discover have to mandate fair handling of chargeback complaints by all card issuers! Merchants start pressing felony charges against offending cardholders and put them in jail with the rest of the thieves!